Let me start by stating something obvious: in the last decade, technology has transformed from a tool that we use to a place where we live. If we’re setting out to change the character of technology in our lives, we’d be wise to learn from the character of places.
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Tokoro is used to describe the location or site of something, but it is also used to describe a state of being. In Japan, the idea of place is indistinguishable from the historical, cultural, social, and other connections contained within it. The idea of tokoro therefore implies the idea of context, as the place is inevitably connected with all the activities around it.
Being a designer, space obviously plays an existential role in my professional life, so naturally, I’m always happy to broaden my horizon with new ways of thinking about this subject matter. Like with Sekki, Wabi-Sabi, Ikigai and Shikake the Japanese have some interesting perspectives to offer.¹
Deriving from the foundational traditions of Shinto and Buddhism, the Japanese idea of space does not only seek to describe spatial set-ups but tends to focus on the connection between its occupants as well as the interplay of humans, the environment, and society at large.
The essay The Japanese words for “space” could change your view of the world gives us western readers a quick overview of the four different Japanese words for space called tokoro (所), ma (間), wa (和) and ba (場), providing a very different and therefore very interesting thinking about this topic. Not only but especially for designers an article worth reading.
¹ If you want to learn more about the Japanese concepts mentioned, I recommend the following books as an entry point:
- Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life by Beth Kempton
- The Little Book of Ikigai: The secret Japanese way to live a happy and long life by Ken Mogi
- Shikake: The Japanese Art of Shaping Behavior Through Design by Naohiro Matsumura
qz.com/1181019/the-japanese-words-for-space-could-change-your-view-of-the-world
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filed under thinking out loud, films and seriestags:estimated reading time:just shy of three minutes (~883words)
Ted Lasso
»If the Lasso way is wrong, it’s hard to imagine being right.«
Thanks to the many streaming services producing original shows for their programs, we are living in the golden era of TV series. Large-scale projects with a ludicrous production value and great writing à la ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘Dark’, ‘Mr. Robot’, ‘The Witcher’, ‘Mindhunter’, ‘Black Mirror’ or ‘Stranger Things’ used to be very rare back in the days of classic television, let alone the exceptional niche projects like ‘Love Death + Robots‘, ‘Abstract’ or Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside‘. [the last not being a series, I know, but can’t mention this marvelous piece of art often enough]
By contrast, there hasn’t been much original comedic content I’ve gotten really enthusiastic about from those services —besides some of the Netflix stand-up specials and maybe ‘How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)’. That being said, it’s great to have wide access to the beloved sitcoms initially produced for television, such as ‘Modern Family’, ‘Life In Pieces’, ‘Community’ and the best sitcom of all time –and one of my favourite series altogether– ‘Scrubs’.
Only recently I became aware of a new show developed by its creator Bill Lawrence –for Apple’s streaming service, unfortunately– called Ted Lasso. It’s centered around a pre-existing character, which was created by Jason Sudeikis over a decade ago for a stage program and later adapted for a series of promotional clips from broadcaster NBC Sports, before it became the lead character in the show of the same name in 2020.
Its underlying story is quickly summarized: Rebecca Welton hires American Football coach Ted Lasso to train her football –being soccer, not the American sport– club ‘AFC Richmond’ so that he’d fail miserably and ruin the Premier League team in the long run. In doing so she hopes to get revenge on her cheating ex-husband, who previously owned the club and still is very attached to it.
Ted : Guys have underestimated me my entire life and for years I never understood why —it used to really bother me. But then one day I was driving my little boy to school and I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, it was painted on the wall and it said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that. So I get back in my car and I’m driving to work and all of the sudden it hits me —all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything figured out so they judged everything and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me —who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious they would have asked questions.
At its core, the story follows the fish-out-of-water narrative, poking fun at some of the cultural differences between America and England along the way —the mismatch in language being a constant source for gags for example. As a matter of fact, one might hear the premise and brush aside Ted Lasso for simply being a classical underdog sports story, but just like ‘Scrubs’ wasn’t a hospital series in the first place, there’s no need to be interested in soccer at all to enjoy this show.
Both series use their setting merely as a vehicle to touch on essential topics like anxiety and loss, struggle and success, belonging and purpose, and, above all, human relationships —be it of romantic or professional nature, friendship or family ties. They are entertaining comedies at heart and very funny at that, but both manage to balance out the easy-going laughs with some heartfelt drama more effortless than any other series I know of. Lawrence is able to make you literally laugh out loud on some silly nonsense, just to tug at your heartstrings a few scenes later or hit you hard with some inspiring life advice every now and then.
In a ‘Sesame Street’ themed episode during the last season of ‘Scrubs’ [S8 E5; My ABC’s] its protagonist Dr. John ‘J.D.’ Dorian contemplates about the famous children’s series, but to me, the bottom line has always applied to ‘Scrubs’ itself, too, and it holds true to Ted Lasso just the same:
J.D. : And then I realised why I thought about Sesame Street all day. In a way, you can learn everything you have to know from watching it as a kid. Like, always play nice, always try your hardest and even, it’s okay to cry.
Another strength of Ted Lasso –besides its amazing writing– is the quality of its ensemble. It’s an absolute joy to watch Sudeikis embody the relentlessly optimistic, almost annoyingly positive coach with unexpected depth. Thanks to him the series is upbeat and brim-full of frenetic energy without ever losing the human touch.
And from Lasso on down, there’s a roster of great figures with personalities and interesting character arcs throughout the seasons. The entire cast through to the supporting actors is terrific, bringing grandiose chemistry onto the screen.
On Friday the final episode of the second season dropped and I’m really curious how the confirmed third season is going to wrap up the loose story threads we are left with right now. But I’m pretty optimistic, that Ted Lasso is going to join ‘Scrubs’ for my favourite series of all time eventually.
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An old friend of mine, a journalist, once said that paradise on earth was to work all day alone in anticipation of an evening in interesting company.
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filed under eventsestimated reading time:just shy of three minutes (~872words)
OFFF 2021
Revisiting one of europe’s biggest festivals of creativity during a global pandemic
About six years ago I stumbled upon the OFFF Festival for the very first time. I honestly can’t remember if my wife and I were planning to visit Barcelona again anyway –after our prior trip during La Mercè in 2013– or if the festival itself was the reason to return to Catalonia in the first place. Either way, the years thereafter I made sure to rush for a so-called ‘super early bird ticket’ as soon as they dropped –a year in advance– and then planned a vacation around the date of the event only much later.
Three years in a row I marvelled several of my design heroes and discovered the stunning work of a myriad of creatives previously unknown to me. Buzzing with sheer creativity the festival to me always has been an inspiring melange of motivation (»that shit is fucking amazing, now THAT’S why I want to work in the creative industry in the first place!«) and disillusionment (»that shit is fucking amazing, why is my stuff not THAT great?«), sending me back home with the strong urge to learn more and create better time after time.
In combination with the wonderful Museu del Disseny the festival takes place at, the beloved city of Barcelona all around and the beautiful beaches of Sitges nearby, I found it to be the perfect way to regenerate and recharge my creative batteries. As a consequence, my rather random first attendance at OFFF became a tradition near and dear to my heart and a holiday trip I looked forward to full of joy beforehand every year.
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© OFFF / 2016
Once two of my colleagues from Wagnerwagner went along and together we wrote about our OFFF experience in-depth –in german– in a series of articles on Medium afterward.
After I had to resell my ticket for 2018 because of a friend’s
badly timedwedding, the following year was the first time since my primal attendance in 2015 I didn’t buy a ticket in the first place and skipped the festival intentionally, albeit with a very heavy heart.All the bigger the anticipation when I bought a ticket –super early bird, of course– for the 20th Anniversary past year and booked a corresponding ten-day trip with my wife shortly after. But you know how 2020 went down eventually.
InOtherWorlds
After rescheduling at first and eventually canceling the event completely last year, its organisers decided to move to the digital space for 2021 from the outset. Even though there were no other real options —hosting a huge event with people from all over the world would’ve been a reckless decision (WTF UEFA?), I was bummed out a bit.
And despite the apparent effort, the team spent on the digital infrastructure in an attempt to make the experience more of a virtual festival than just a series of live streams, the presentations themselves were exactly that in the end.
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The admittedly cool entrance to the virtual conference rooms …
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… hid a rather underwhelming digital main stage
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This is how most of the presentations looked like basically
Sensory reformulation
To make up for it –and probably due to the saved costs thanks to the speakers not traveling– this year’s festival lasted twice as long, taking place over the course of six instead of the usual three days, resulting in a vast amount of presentations. Since the festival happened in May already and I watched as much of the program as possible back then, I am by no means able to recapitulate much of it in great detail anymore.
The good news is that there are some recordings available, so instead of trying to summarize the presentations I’ve watched, I’m going to give you a brief rundown of the ones I remember being especially impressive and/or inspiring for you to watch yourself. Unfortunately, I’m not able to link individual videos here, you have to search for them on the recordings page:
- Tendril
- Future Deluxe
- Alistair Simpson
- Studio Dumbar
- Saam Gabbay
- Omelet
- Universal Everything
- Joshua Davis
- Adam J. Kurtz
Sadly one of my favourite talks, Stefan Sagmeister speaking about art as opposed to design and his wonderful project ‘Beautiful Numbers‘, isn’t available for some reason, similarly to the closing presentation by GMUNK.
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Stefan Sagmeister speaking about good design
Let’s feed the future
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© GMUNK
The film ultimately focuses on the human condition nested within a cult of robotic shamans called The Vi, and examines the deep emotional connection to loss and rebirth.
GMUNK was presenting some of his astonishing work –which you are able to find online, but in addition, he was talking about a short movie called ‘DECIMA’, which is going to debut at next year’s OFFF. You are able to watch its teaser on Vimeo and I can’t wait to see the final short on the big screen when the festival is going to be held on-site again from 5-7 May 2022. [fingers crossed]
This year’s digital event was an interesting experience with a lot of amazing work on display –as usual, but ultimately there was no chance it could’ve been an adequate substitute for the original face-to-face experience in Barcelona, to be honest.
Ticket sales for next year just have started, guess who got himself an ‘early bird’ ticket already.
To listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.
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© Kirby Ferguson (via YouTube)
Our creativity comes from without, not from within. We are not self made, we are dependent on one another. Admitting this to ourselves isn’t an embrace of mediocrity and derivativeness —it’s a liberation from our misconceptions, and it’s an incentive to not expect so much from ourselves, and to simply begin.
As creatives, we are usually driven to chase what we think of as purely original ideas. While I was studying design, a video series called Everything is a Remix was making the rounds, offering another –presumably much healthier– perspective on novelty and inspiration.
A decade later, Kirby Ferguson is apparently redoing the series for 2021 and I recommend every creative to watch it —but especially those who are still in training.
My lostness comes from the sense that our cultural collections are not wholly our own anymore. In the era of algorithmic feeds, it’s as if the bookshelves have started changing shape on their own in real time, shuffling some material to the front and downplaying the rest like a sleight-of-hand magician trying to make you pick a specific card — even as they let you believe it’s your own choice. And this lack of agency is undermining our connections to the culture that we love.
Even though I definitely don’t consider The digital death of collecting being something I myself might be affected anytime soon –I collect LPs, books and magazines, polaroids and probably even too much other physical stuff, I do fear Kyle Chayka’s observations might hold true for the general public —especially for the generations yet to discover the broad field of culture.
Another interesting essay adding to the sentiment that made me publish on this blog again in the first place.
kylechayka.substack.com/p/essay-the-digital-death-of-collecting
Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Wabi-sabi is ambivalent about separating beauty from non-beauty or ugliness. The condition of coming to terms with what you consider ugly. Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.
filed under hyperlinks, videos![]()
© Yuki Kawae (via YouTube)
Because we all need less noise.
I could watch this all day: Meditative video by Yuki Kawae exploring different patterns in his minimal Zen garden. Tempted to use the practical tips from his website to build my own little Zen garden now.
filed under thinking out loud, musicestimated reading time:less than two minutes (~406words)Kunzite – VISUALS
»Ride on the rays of the farthest sun«
About a decade ago I came across the electronic rock from Ratatat for the first time because of their features on one of my favourite albums, Kid Cudi’s masterpiece ‘Man on the Moon: The End of Day’. The recognizable sound the Brooklyn-based duo was contributing to the tracks ‘Alive’ and ‘Pursuit of Happiness‘ –probably one of my favourite songs of all time– lead me to listen to their music quite extensively back then, first and foremost to the extremly catchy tunes of their earlier released album ‘Classics’.
Just recently –six years after the last vital signs of Ratatat– said album (which nowadays is available on YouTube in its entirety) popped into my head again while listening to ‘VISUALS’, the just-released second longplayer by a band called Kunzite. Only after doing my habitual research on the music project unkown to me hitherto, I discovered my association is not by chance;
The 2018 formed duo is a collaboration between the musicians Agustin White and Mike Stroud, the latter being the guitarist of –you guessed it– Ratatat, for which he plays a variety of instruments. I guess a lot of the infectious groove on ‘VISUALS’ caused by synthesizers, pipe organs and lap steel guitars is to a great extent attributed to him, at least it undoubtedly sounds a hell lot like his other music project.
In fact the whole record sounds like Ratatat got inspired by the island vibes of Hawaii –where White and Stroud recorded large parts of the longplayer, decided to dial back the weirdness just a tiny bit and, most notably, add hypnotic pop vocals to their repertoire.
The result is a psychedelic joyride and probably one of my favourite albums of 2021 so far. I can’t wait for ‘VISUALS’ to drop on vinyl later this year (November), until then I have to be careful not to listen to it repeatedly ad nauseam in its digital form —especially since it oozes summer fun and therefore matches the current late summer sun way better than the dark winter months ahead.
There’s rumored to be an exclusive track with the grande Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry on the physical record, though, so I’m going to put it on as soon as I get my hands on it, no matter how often I’ll have played it already till then.
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© KUNZITE (via YouTube)
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© KUNZITE (via YouTube)
filed under hyperlinks, films and seriesThe weekly series ‘Kurzschluss‘ (short circuit) by Franco-German TV network ‘ARTE’ offers short films a unusual platform for the medium in the main program of linear television. Yesterday’s episode paid tribute to its broadcasting date, focusing on shorts influenced by “9/ 11 and its aftermath” as well as the Charlie Hebdo shooting of 2015 in France.
One of the three selected stories was the incredibly tense and absolutely superbly produced un état d’urgence | state of emergency. The short kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish and still echoes through my mind a day later.
A movie about a society in fear. It is the story of two soldiers in the everyday life of Paris guarding an official building. […] The lines between normality and real danger disappear.
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